SAN QUENTIN — A man convicted and incarcerated in San Quentin Prison for killing his fourth wife while on parole for killing his second said he also killed his third spouse when asked by the Enterprise-Record last week during a phone call.

Gerald Stanley, 65, admitted to Diana Lynn’s death for the first time since her disappearance in 1980.

Stanley made a call to the newspaper from prison to discuss his case. He suggested investigators take a video camera to the creek bed in Tehama County near the town of Manton where he said he buried her body.

In letters to the Enterprise-Record last year, Stanley offered to take authorities to the creek bed, though he is now considered too ill to be transported to Butte County for court appearances.

In the correspondence, he said he was told he had a short time to live and wanted to help recover his missing wife’s body before he dies. A copy was also sent to the Tehama County District Attorney’s Office.

In 1983, Stanley was convicted by the Butte County Superior Court for the sniper slaying in Lake County of his fourth wife while on parole for killing his second spouse. The trial was transferred to Butte County on a change of venue.

His third wife’s disappearance

Tehama County District Attorney Gregg Cohen said he hopes to solve Lynn’s case.

“I’ve always regarded it as an unsolved homicide,” Cohen said. “I would be anxious to get ahold of the statement he made.”

Cohen said that about a year and a half ago, he got in contact with the Sheriff’s Office and the Department of Justice to have them coordinate a search. He thinks the area Stanley said Lynn is buried is not precise, making it difficult for law enforcement to locate.

“I don’t know that any search has been done,” Cohen said.

Calls to the Tehama County Sheriff’s Office and the California Department of Justice were not returned before deadline.

Before Cohen got involved in the case about six years ago, he said Stanley provided information the Department of Justice used with cadaver dogs to search for Lynn, but her body was not found.

“I’m not in a position by any legal mechanism to take him from death row, place him with my investigators and drive him to the location he says Diana is buried,” Cohen said. “It needs to be a coordinated effort.”

Cohen has had difficulty gaining cooperation from Stanley, he said.

“Sometimes he seems to be truthful and sometimes he appears to not be truthful,” Cohen said of Stanley.

history of violence

During the penalty phase of Stanley’s trial, then-Lake County District Attorney Robert Crone introduced evidence linking him to a number of crimes including rape and murder.

The prosecution alleged Stanley was involved in Lynn’s disappearance and the 1980 death of Cheryl Renee Wright, 19, of Redding, according to Enterprise-Record archived stories and California Supreme Court opinion case law. Also reported was before Stanley killed his fourth wife, he raped her and burned down her house and car.

In 2008, a federal court judge in Sacramento stayed Stanley’s execution after finding that one of the female jurors who had declared him mentally competent in 1983 did not disclose to the court she had been a victim of violence.

Stanley said he and his defense attorneys knew she had been a victim of violence.

Butte County Superior Court Judge Gerald Hermansen heard medical testimony in December on whether it’s possible to retrospectively determine Stanley’s competency when he was ordered put to death.

“I was competent in 1983,” Stanley said. “I’m competent now.”

Hermansen said he would issue a written ruling on the issue if he hadn’t heard from attorneys in the case by Thursday. As of Thursday afternoon, Hermansen had not issued the ruling.

Stanley will likely serve the rest of his life in prison rather than die by lethal injection if a judge rules it is not feasible to retrospectively determine his competency, attorneys in the case said.

The Tehama County district attorney said he will continue to encourage law enforcement to look for Lynn’s body, in part for her family’s sake.